As Decentraland has already attracted a contingent of major in fashion labels, big names in beauty are now making their way into the decentralized virtual world.
Lottie London is the latest beauty brand to enter the metaverse via Decentraland. On March 17, the makeup brand used Decentraland as the venue for its first-ever metaverse party celebrating the launch of its new nail collaboration with celebrity nail artist Chaun Legend, available at Walmart. The host of Metaverse Fashion Week, which starts March 24, Decentraland is attracting a growing share of metaverse hype when it comes to brands looking for new consumer-friendly marketing opportunities.
“We designed the whole experience for our consumers and our fans,” said Nora Zukauskaite, global marketing director at Lottie’s parent company, Brand Agency London. While a physical party would “be either only in L.A. or New York, [in Decentraland,] you have a boundless experience and opportunities.” The event took only a month to plan.
The Lottie launch event was held at the nightclub-like Casa Azul venue in Decentraland’s Vegas Plaza district, with Decentraland influencers in attendance decked out in their flashy virtual looks. The party featured a video interview with Chaun Legend, known for his nail artistry work with Rihanna, Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. Attendees also received a free virtual avatar head featuring a makeup look based on Lottie’s best-selling products.
“I would love to put some long coffin nails on Queen Elizabeth,” said Legend, when asked which celebrities he’d love to work with.
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The event space, open for anyone to visit for a week, received over 1,000 visitors in the first 24 hours. The turnout “shows that there’s a huge interest in immersive experiences,” said Zukauskaite.
The brand is targeting both its beauty customers and the Decentraland community with the campaign, promoting it across its social platforms with instructions on how to join as well as within Decentraland. Zukauskaite estimated that the “majority” of participants were from the Decentraland community.
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Participation in a brand launch party in Decentraland requires several steps. Users must create a Decentraland profile, then click through the map to find the event. In the case of the Lottie party, that meant locating Casa Azul, which at the time of the initial launch party was by clicking an unmarked set of coordinates on the virtual map.
For the Lottie London event, attendees could click to receive a branded POAP (which stands for proof of attendance protocol) collectible token, which could be exchanged for a virtual avatar makeup look. The look featured Lottie’s Mega Brow, Stamp Liner Wing Edition and Freckle Tint products. In less than 12 hours, the brand ran out of its 1,000 POAP tokens and had to mint 1,000 more.
“[While] you wouldn’t say the metaverse and Decentraland is the place where a lot of beauty-passionate consumers gather, there is a huge potential because you’re just reaching so much more new audiences and new consumers,” Zukauskaite said.
Decentraland has been increasingly attracting major brands as they get in on the hype over Metaverse Fashion Week. Participating fashion brands include Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger, Dundas, Cavalli, Nicholas Kirkwood and Elie Saab.
Beauty has also joined in. Estée Lauder will be the exclusive beauty brand partner of Metaverse Fashion Week. This follows Valdé Beauty’s recent lipstick and NFT launch party in Decentraland in late January.
In the virtual world, an avatar’s appearance serves as a key status symbol. With everything from outfits makeup, both fashion and beauty brands — including Lottie and Fenty Beauty — are experimenting with creating avatar looks for the metaverse.
As Decentraland’s existing devoted community is enthusiastic about buying virtual styles to dress up their avatars and showing off at virtual parties, beauty labels are creating makeup looks for participants.
Other brands are showing interest in metaverse-related beauty looks. Fenty Beauty just filed a trademark for “downloadable virtual goods,” including “computer games featuring cosmetics and makeup, cosmetic and makeup accessories, hair care preparations, hair coloring preparations, hair styling preparations, hair care accessories, hair coloring accessories, hair styling accessories, skin care preparations, skin care accessories, soaps, perfumes and personal fragrances, all of the foregoing for use in online virtual worlds.”
NFTs are also a part of some brands’ Decentraland promotions. For its participation in Metaverse Fashion Week, Estée Lauder will be giving out 10,000 free NFTs inspired by its Advanced Night Repair serum. While Lottie London did not launch an NFT at its Decentraland party, fellow Brand Agency London-owned label Ciaté London was one of the first beauty brands to create an NFT when it launched one as part of its Christine Quinn collaboration in September 2021.
For the future, Lottie’s parent company has “a lot in the works,” with regard to the metaverse and gaming-related promotions for brands across its portfolio, said Zukauskaite.
“This was our first [foray] so it’s always a bit of a trial to see how it goes,” she said. “We didn’t expect the great success, quite honestly. Having this amount of foot traffic would probably be quite hard if limited to one location.”
